CHESS

LAST weekend Magnus Carlsen once again showed his class, winning the Chessable Masters online tournament. In the final the world champion defeated Anish Giri, collecting the first prize of $45,000 (€40,000).

On day one of the final Carlsen won the first set 3.52.5. In the first game on day two of the match, Carlsen produced the following masterpiece — before going on to successfully defend three dangerous positions and he took the match 2-0.

Carlsen – Giri 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 cxd4 8.cxd4 Bb4+ 9.Bd2 Bxd2+ 10.Qxd2 0–0 11.Bc4 Nd7 12.0–0 b6

This line is very popular in the elite tournaments. Last week I showed the game Giri-Nepomniachtchi, in which White played 13.d5 and later won brilliantly. Carlsen went for a more traditional approach:

13.Rad1 Bb7 15.Bb3 Re8 17.d5 exd5 19.Qe1 Qc7 21.h4 Rcd8 23.h5 Ne6?! 14.Rfe1 Rc8 16.Re3 Nf6 18.e5! Ne4 20.Nd4 a6 22.f3 Nc5

Perhaps Black should have tried 23...Bc8, not letting the enemy knight to f5.

25.Red3 Nc5?

Black could put up more resistance by playing 25...Bd5 26.Nd6 Bxb3 27.Nxe8 Rxe8 28.axb3 h6.

27.Rxd4 Nxb3 29.axb3 Rd8 (D)